Graham Platners messy exit inflames Dem civil war, amid bruising fight with talented Susan Collins

WASHINGTON — Democrats are growing anxious that the Graham Platner fiasco has left them with just under four months to throw a campaign together for a new candidate and to get the oyster farmer’s base of loyal followers to “cool off” from his implosion.While many Dem strategists argue that Platner’s announced exit has improved their chances against incumbent Sen.Susan Collins (R-Maine), they acknowledge that the debacle created a lot of headaches for the party, eerily reminiscent of where they were under Joe Biden two years ago.“Good riddance to Nepo Nazi, Oyster Adolf, Maine Kampf.

It can only go up from here,” one Democratic staffer on Capitol Hill vented to The Post.“But this ridiculous and preventable episode surely did not help anything.”Maine is generally seen as a must-win seat for Democrats to retake the Senate.A fresh batch of polling from Z to A Research, which is aligned with Democratic hopeful Nirav Shah, found that incumbent Sen.

Susan Collins (R-Maine) is within the margin of error of all the major potential candidates tested.Before June, Platner consistently had a comfortable lead over her.“This was always going to be an expensive, hard-fought race regardless of who the Democratic candidate is,” former Jill Biden spokesman Michael LaRosa explained, pointing to Collins’ history of overperforming polls.

“With less than three months before early voting begins, the Sanders-Warren-PodSaveAmerica Mamdani experiment in Maine has exploded in all of our faces, and I’m not especially optimistic that our chances of finally unseating Collins have improved.”One lingering source of unease is that, as of press time, Platner has not yet filed the paperwork needed to officially withdraw his name from the race, despite committing to doing so in a bitter video message on Wednesday.If he fails to formally withdraw by 5 pm ET next Monday, he will be stuck on the ballot, which many Democrats have described as a nightmare scenario.Platn...